Ironstone Vineyards, Motherlode Daffodil Show in Murphy is a fabulous display usually held over St. Patrick’s Day weekend as it was this year, but I was babysitting while my children were skiing in Utah.

So, Merle Reuser and I visited the winery with its one million daffodil and other bulbs  after we saw Daffodil Hill in Volcano, Ca.  He had seen it while I was babysitting as he had on other occasions.

In the photos above, there are many different varieties of Tulips and Daffodils.  The Salmon Parrot Tulips in the first photo are an old favorite from when I grew cut flowers in Portola Valley.  The second photo is a grouping of daffodils with a particularly garish daffodil in person, Einstein, which looks good in this photo but is Velveeta Cheese orange and looks almost phlorescent.  The third photo features the Tete a Tete daffodils which are a favorite of mine and which I love to see clustered together like these are.

This winery also owns the largest gold nugget in the world although it was not on display that day.  At forty four pounds it must be a sight and came out of a deposit of one hundred ounces of which it was the largest piece.  How appropriate for a winery in California’s Gold Country which also has one million daffodils.  Two hundred thousand more daffodils and they will have as many daffodils as the nuggest is worth is dollars, give or take a hundred thousand or so.

Along the road to the winery were planted three feet wide swaths of daffodils against the fencing of the vineyard.  What a pleasant sight!  Next year, I plant to go to see the many hundreds of daffodils created by daffodil enthusiasts that will be on display over the St. Patrick’s weekend.

Having the daffodils line the road in from of the vineyard is a great use of them.